Winning the battles that you face

 If you’re walking through a time of battle, feeling like you have been abandoned, soaking in fear and anxiety right now my friend, you may scan the whole Bible searching to find relevant words to encourage yourself as I often do, and if you are familiar with many of the verses and teachings of Jesus, you will find that they will somehow seem to rise to the forefront at just the right time and be exactly what you need to hear at just the right moments.

It’s good to find a word from God when we need it. But God usually prepares us with his Word before we even know we need it. Jesus told his disciples ahead of time that he was going to be crucified. He told them ahead of time that they would experience persecution. He told them in John 16:4 that when their hour comes that they may remember the things he had told them.

What a blessing to have had our conscience shaped by the stories and experiences of men and women of the Bible. Like Peter’s sin and restoration, we can find hope for ourselves through an act of our own sin, that Jesus will forgive and receive us back as well.

What a blessing to know how to embrace and personalize the story of Elijah, experienced years before we would experience our own fears and lack of faith with feeling alone to wonder with our doubts and feelings that we too have been abandoned.

satan knows how powerful the Word of God is. God's word is the only weapon that can defeat him, and he is very aware of that truth. That is why he is forever trying to change, misuse or have us question what God has said. He even used that tactic against the Son of God Himself, in the wilderness in Luke 4:9 when he said to Jesus, “If You are the Son of God, he said, “throw Yourself down from here. For it is written: ‘He will command His angels concerning You to guard You carefully;".

When Jesus was tempted by the devil in the wilderness, His response was not something He quickly came up with, but with the verbal Word of God that was in Him. When Jesus responded to the temptation to turn stones into bread by saying, “Man shall not live by bread alone,” He was doing more than finding an applicable truth to counter an error. He recognized that He was standing where Israel had stood before Him, in the wilderness, tempted to question God’s fidelity to His people. It was not doubt that tempted Jesus, but satan.

He did the same thing when he caused Eve to question what God has said in Gen. 3:4 "You will not surely die", the serpent said to the woman" by responding to her statement in Gen. 3:3 "but God did say, "You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die."

I believe that satan uses his "questioning God's word" tactic, against us more than any other. If you look closer in the scriptures where satan was speaking, he is in some way questioning what God says or will do or questioning us before the Father as he did Job and even Jesus.

While it is not the easiest effort that you will ever make, for satan will come against you in every way that he can to keep you from reading, studying and trusting the word of God, it is the only weapon that God has forged for you to use, in striking back against the enemy. That was the weapon that Jesus used when he engaged satan in the wilderness. Even the archangel Michael, in his dispute with satan over the body of Moses, rebuked him in the name of the Lord.

Jude 9 is the supreme illustration of how Christians are to deal with satan and demons. The example of Michael refusing to pronounce a curse upon satan should be a lesson to Christians in how to relate to all unseen demonic forces. Believers are not to address them, but rather to seek the Lord’s intervening power against them.

If as powerful a being as Michael is, deferred to the Lord in dealing with Satan, who are we to attempt to reproach, cast out, or command demons in our own strength and power? Ephesians 6:10-18 describes the entire armor that God has provided His children to use as they battle spiritual warfare. But to know how to use this armor you must know what it is, and to recognize when and how to use it. Otherwise, you will never win the spiritual battles that you face.

Hold Fast,

-Bren

Lukewarm State of Mind

Sometimes God’s children fall into spiritual ruts. They seem to be going through the motions of being a child of God but, without passion or a genuine feeling of the closeness that they have had in the past in their walk with Him. I admit that I have found myself in that situation as well.

It is in those times that we lose our excitement about the things of God and even damage our relationship with Him. While we do not reject Him altogether, we find ourselves in a very uncomfortable and awkward situation, for a while anyway. It is that in-between, not wholly with the world, but not totally in love with God either, place. 

This place the scripture refers to as, spiritual complacency, being lukewarm and straddling the spiritual fence. While this may not be your problem right now, at some point in your Christian life, you may be, if you are not careful to guard yourself, by being filled daily and walking in the Holy Spirit. 

All of us have the tendency to slip into a lukewarm spiritual state. Instead of being the thermostat, we become a thermometer. When everything is going well and we don’t need anything, it’s very tempting to let our guards down assuming that it will always be grand. 

In Revelations 3:14-22, Jesus sent word through John in a letter to the church in Laodicea. He told them that they were spiritually complacent: “To the angel of the church in Laodicea write: These are the words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the ruler of God’s creation. I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm neither hot nor cold I am about to spit you out of my mouth. You say, ‘I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.’ But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked. I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, so you can become rich; and white clothes to wear, so you can cover your shameful nakedness; and salve to put on your eyes, so you can see. Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest, and repent. Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me. To him who overcomes, I will give the right to sit with me on my throne, just as I overcame and sat down with my Father on his throne. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.” 

Jesus is telling us to not be content in that condition. Get up, move out! He stands ready and waiting to help us out of that wretched state, but we must desire Him more than anything else. You see it’s always “things’ that trip us up and get us sidetracked. Watch your step, watch your spiritual walk, don’t get trapped in a lukewarm state of mind and heart. Be ready to pick up and move on to a higher spiritual ground and remember that you can only get there by moving forward.

Hold Fast,

-Bren

The folly of trusting Egypt

Seeking shelter in the shadow of Egypt will only lead to disappointment and bondage. Isaiah 31:1 warns, "Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help, who rely on horses, who trust in the multitude of their chariots and in the great strength of their horsemen, but do not look to the Holy One of Israel or seek help from the LORD."

Hezekiah was a godly man, the opposite of his father, Ahaz. "He removed the high places and broke the pillars and cut down the Asherah." II Kings18:4. "He trusted in the Lord the God of Israel, so that there was none like him among all the kings of Judah after him, nor among those who were before him." II Kings 18:4 "He rebelled against the king of Assyria and would not serve him." II Kings 18:7

"In the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah, Sennacherib king of Assyria came up against all the fortified cities of Judah and took them. 

Hezekiah sent to the king of Assyria at Lachish, saying, "I have done wrong; withdraw from me; whatever you impose on me I will bear. And the king of Assyria required of Hezekiah, three hundred talents of silver and thirty talents of gold." II Kings18:14 However, the Assyrian agreement was worthless, because the Assyrian army was soon at the gates of Jerusalem again. Their spokesman, a gifted military commander, Rabshakeh addressed Hezekiah at the time of the siege and asked, "On whom do you now rely, that you have rebelled against me? Behold, you are relying now on Egypt, that broken reed of a staff, which will pierce the hand of any man who leans on it." II K.18:20–21

Egypt's reputation was well-known. The Assyrians knew that Egypt would rather duck than fight. So, Isaiah, the prophet of God, and Assyria, Israel's mortal enemy, speak the same word, "don't rely on Egypt". But Hezekiah evidently had not resisted the temptation and so Isaiah's word was to him as well as his people.

There are times in our lives when doing nothing is the right thing to do and in doing nothing, we are actually trusting God. Desperate situations provoke desperate reactions. How do we know whether to flee, or fight, or sit tight? Providentially, the answer comes to us in this passage, "Your Teacher will not hide himself anymore, but your eyes shall see your Teacher [in the flesh. And your ears shall hear a word behind you (the Holy Spirit), saying, 'This is the way, walk in it,' when you turn to the right or when you turn to the left." Isa.30:20–21

Many of us have had the experience of God's direct guidance in unusual circumstances. The goal, however, is to be under His guidance at all times. The tribe of Judah sinned and invited trouble by trusting in military might and not the Lord.

In the book of Isaiah, the prophet confronts Judah with 2 sins, the sin of trusting in Egypt and their military might and the sin of not looking to their God, the holy one of Israel. The people of Judah felt they had a reason to trust in chariots because there were many of them, and they felt that they had a reason to trust in their horsemen, because they were very strong.

However, they could not seem to find a reason to trust in the Lord. The one who in past time delivered them and gave them victory.  Judah was not trusting God at that time for the same reason that we do not trust God in our times of trouble. They were looking around with their fleshly eyes and not their spiritual eyes and their fear overcame their faith.

It's like having a wayward child that you see is living in the "far away country" making the most grievous of mistakes over and over again. You struggle to give them to God, but in the process of doing so, you take your spiritual eyes off of God's ability and allow your fleshy eyes to focus on your child's "lack of ability" in making better choices, and those thoughts if not repented of will carry you off to a baron place of doubt and disturbance.

What about you sweet friend? When you are faced with a situation that requires your faith in difficult situations, have you set your spiritual default to turn to God and remain true to Him in doing so? Or, do you find it easier to give up and look to other places for help, only to find in the end that only God could really help!

"God can make the stoutest heart to tremble. God can, when he pleases, make the stoutest heart to tremble; and as for those who will not fear God, he can make them fear at the shaking of a leaf." 2 Kings 7:3-11

 His strong hand can humble the hardest of hearts. Man brings destruction on himself. It is God that comes to his rescue when he humbles himself before God. 

Hold fast,

-Bren

To visit a dessert place

The Book of Numbers is known in Hebrew by the key word of its first sentence, Bamidbar, "In the wilderness." It is also always read on the Shabbat before Shavuot, the festival of the giving of the Torah. It was in the wilderness that the Israelites had been given revelation, by the spoken word of God given to Moses.

Every ancient religion but one, believes their gods are present in the phenomena of nature, like the sun, the stars, the sky, the sea, which are all visible to the eye; their gods can be seen. The Bible tells us that God is beyond nature. He is not in the form of nature itself.

Even Sigmund Freud, who was known to be somewhat hostile to religion, could not avoid being impressed by the idea of God and Who He was. While almost every other civilization has been a culture of the religious eye, Judaism is a culture of the ear, of words, speech, listening, interpreting, understanding, heeding.

The eye is captivated by the shifting scenes of nature, art and architecture. This is why it is prohibited in Judaism against making images or icons of God. To Judaism, the idea that God is visible is idolatry. God is beyond the totality of things seen in His creation. People may see His handiwork and believe in Him, but nature is clearly God's work and not who He is.

The vast universe is no more than the work of God's fingers according to Psalm 8:3 "When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place". Psalm 19:1-5: "The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands." Romans 1:20 "For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So, they are without excuse." Everything that we can see is not actually God, but merely the work of God.

For Judaism, the idea that God is visible is idolatry, because God is beyond the totality of things that can be seen, and this is why it is important to know His Word and what He speaks and says through it. God Himself is a Spirit. John 4:24 instructs us regarding the way God desires that we worship Him: "God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and in truth."

While the eye plays an important role in viewing God's created beauty, it is far better to know God personally and hear what he has to say, than merely be impressed by His power to create beauty.

Ultimately, it is in the emptiness of the wilderness that the eye is subordinate to the ear. God has a special way of leading His children to a dessert place in order that they may listen to Him.

If nothing had happened but a lucky escape from the heavy hand of the Egyptian power and bondage the Jews were under, there only would have been a few more nomadic tribes roaming the border of the promised land and living and working alongside others in agriculture. But the desert was only a station on the way, not the goal. For in the desert, the tribes found their God. They entered into a covenant with him and thereby became his people.

When we undertake an exodus and wander into the world of searching and seeking, in order to find answers from God, we too discover a world that will resemble a desert. We will find that our flight leads us nowhere, until we stop, listen and learn the things that God wants us to know; and when our world has become a desert of sorts, we are at last in the solitude in which he can hear loudly, the voice of His spirit with its urgent whispering. Are you willing today, sweet friend, to visit a dessert place in order to hear from God? Or maybe you are on your way there now! If so, move on. He is waiting!

Hold Fast,

-Bren

Cleaning up our messes

 Being hasty in our actions and conversations with others, failure to restrain from assumptions and words that we want to say, anger that flares up when we get our feelings hurt and not being on our guard spiritually can do more damage in relationships than any other thing. When our moments become moments that are all about us moments and we fail to see the real issues, we are missing out on opportunities to be Christ to others. 

But, when we model the Lord’s behaviors, we become more loving, more willing to sacrifice our rights, seeing a little more of how God may be looking at the situation and we can be a great blessing to others, instead of what they may perceive us as being in a negative way. Letting go of those moments of control, judgement, haste, and pride will bring us closer to God and help us to win others. 

I know that the Lord is committed to me, so I need to commit to Him. I want to have a teachable spirit and be willing to accept His correction, or discipline. Yes, God disciplines me! He disciplines you too if you belong to Him. His discipline may hurt, but it is not harsh, nor does it scar or tear down. His discipline corrects, reveals and builds us up and moves us into the direction of better actions if we choose to summit to it. 

Learning how we speak to one another is not a onetime process. It is continual.  We all possess the opportunities of producing a harvest with our words. But in order to produce a transforming harvest with our words we need to be ever cautious to bless, lift up, show love and build positive and loving relationships, not tear down.

That thing that causes friction, conflicts, even fights and quarrels between yourself and someone you may care about is found in James 4:1-3, it says, “What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don't they come from your desires that battle within you? You want something but don't get it…. .” 

God’s Word teaches us that conflicts can come from the wrong desires that battle within our hearts as well as others and are the result of our sinful natures. Sin in us is always lurking to threaten our happiness and our fellowship with one another. The enemy uses everything and every opportunity he can to cause our focus to be misplaced, because he knows when that happens, even the smallest of things can escalate. 

Once we give in to our sinful nature, God is ignored, and we take matters into our own hands. It is with great effort that we train our minds to be set on God for those moments and what He has instructed us in truth to do in those situations, otherwise truth becomes concealed as if we did not know it or worse, it becomes twisted.

Sometimes, what we think are good desires, can be escalated to reach a sinful retaliation, if our thoughts and ways are not His and we do not deal with our emotions and feelings by making the choice to put them to death in us.  When something is dead, it has no voice, no feeling, no emotion, and no response. 

When my daughters were little, I found myself constantly picking up and cleaning up messes that they made. There were times that I thought they would never learn to stop making messes. As they got older, and I continued training and working with them to be more aware and thoughtful about making messes, the less they made.

This is how God deals with His own children. As His children grow in His grace and knowledge from the point of their new birth, they struggle trying to do the right thing. Like small children, they make messes in their lives. Those messes can often even affect others as well. Yet, as they grow in truth, desiring to do better, they begin to make less messes and they learn how to clean up the messes that they make by responding in the right way. School yourself in God's truth and watch your messes get fewer and far between.

Hold Fast,

-Bren

The plight of the wrongful thinker

Wouldn't it be wonderful if before every mistake we made, a flashing yellow light would pop up in our mind's eye screaming to us, "don't go there!" Making mistakes is a normal part of our everyday lives. But if you're dwelling on your mistakes and they are bringing you discouragement and defeat, there are things that you can do to make it better. However, you have to make the effort.

There are some places that we should never allow ourselves to stay if we stop by and make a visit on the road of regret. Those are the places that will distract us, disturb us, defeat and destroy us if we let them. Anger, discouragement, worry, doubt, guilt and fear just to name a few. God's word tells us the right things that we are to think about and dwell on and instead of pulling up and parking our minds on the wrong things we need to quickly choose to think on those things that will help us move on.  

Some of the mistakes that we make are more complicated and serious than others. They may also take longer to learn from them, by changing our ways. The most important thing in these instances is to learn how to accept what’s happened and move forward, rather than dwell on the past. When you make a mistake, keep in mind that it doesn’t mean anything about who you are as a person if you are working on making it right.

Try not to jump to conclusions about your worth or value. Your reputation belongs to the Lord.  No one’s perfect, and that’s okay. When you mess up and you will, don’t hide the fact and don’t try to sugar-coat it, own it and face it. 

Even though it’s often a really difficult thing to do, it’s important that you accept full responsibility for your actions. If others are involved, you are only responsible for the part you play. The sooner you deal with it, the sooner you can get yourself back on track. If you’re making excuses for yourself, you’ll simply just prolong the process. Philippians 4:5-9 says, "The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. ... And the God of peace will be with you." I love how Paul speaks to his friends, he says, "Therefore, my brothers, you whom I love and long for, my joy and crown", "that is how you should stand firm in the Lord…!" God's word tells us how we should think and what perspective to think with.

I love the story about the small blind boy who every day sat on an old wooden crate in the city park. Beside his feet was a bucket that had a sign taped to it that read, “I am blind, please help.” One day a kind man came walking by and noticed the boy. As he looked inside the boy's bucket, he noticed only a few dimes and pennies. The man reached into his pockets and pulled out all the money that he had and placed it inside the boy's bucket. He then took the sign, turned it around and wrote some other words on the back of the sign and placed it back on the bucket so that everyone who walked by would take more notice. 

Before long, the bucket was overflowing with money.  For the first time, more people had taken notice of the boy than ever before. That afternoon the man who had changed the words on the sign came to see how things had gone. The boy recognizing the footsteps from earlier that morning asked, “Are you the one who changed my sign this morning and if so, would you tell me what you wrote?” The man said, “Yes son, it was me and I did change your words, but I only said what you said, just in a different way.” I wrote, “Today is a beautiful day but I cannot see it.”

You see friend, that man did for that little boy that which the little boy knew not to do for himself. While both signs told people that the little boy was blind, the boy’s sign simply said that he was blind. The man’s sign reminded people to be thankful that they were not blind. 

God is trying to help us, if we will allow Him to re-write the scripts that we play out in our way of thinking. So, on those days that you are tempted to dwell on wrongful thinking, be sure not to park there, but move on! The Higher Road is by no means easy, but it is the right way!

Hold Fast,

-Bren

Embrace and enjoy this Christmas Inbox

 Nothing evokes Christmas memories quite like the smell of fresh-cut evergreen or seeing the star as it sits atop the tree. 

Neither can we forget the Christmas miracle as it is captured in the sweet baby Jesus, of the Nativity. 

Who cannot recall the sound of wrapping paper as it’s being wrapped around the well thought out gifts or a favorite Christmas food, along with all the special Christmas music, and of course all the traditions that we have personally maintained through the years in keeping with the memories that we had growing up or, as well as the new ones that we may be beginning with our own family. 

But when something or someone throws a wet blanket in on any of it, well that can make for some unhappy holiday changes. 

However, that is life and sometimes, plans just change. This year no matter what, try to treasure your traditions, but be open to some possible new ones. 

Sometimes the holidays don't feel exactly as we remember them or how we think they should look or taste. If you are unable to bend and be flexible, willing to compromise during changes that may sneak in on your holiday plans, you will only become frustrated, and your frustration will not only affect you but will spill out into everyone else’s Holiday. 

Besides, we all know that Christmas is about more, than what we eat and where we eat it, or the purchase of gifts. 

Some holiday related stress is to be expected. Turkeys and hams will be burned. Flights will be canceled. People will say that they will come or do this or that and, in the end, something always comes up that prevents them from doing so. 

But how you react to it will most assuredly determine how the holiday will be remembered. Keep in mind that Holiday pressure hits some people harder than others. 

So, you would do well to become one of those people who have learned to chuckle at adversity and laugh off what you are unable to change. 

Romans 8:28 encourages us to do this, “And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose".

Try to keep your focus on what is realistic and not ideal, or you will risk facing major disappointment when things don't go as planned. 

Chances are that the holiday invitations are hitting your inbox and mailbox by now. Between church functions, the office party, family commitments, and those one day only sales, you can be stretched too thin. 

Packing your calendar with obligations means sacrificing time usually spent on other activities. 

Be sure to get plenty of rest during your busy days for rest is one of the best stress relievers and is very much needed yet often can be the first to go. 

So don’t forget to rest and slow things down a bit or your grumpy spirit from the unwanted stress can damper everyone’s holiday fun. 

Be ready to say no to some things. Start to prioritize chores, decline some invitations, and schedule time to do holiday activities you enjoy, instead of just those you feel you have to do.

Keep it simple and as frugal as possible, but most of all remember that our happiness should never be based on our getting or giving but being content with what we are able to give or get and spending time with those we love.

May we all learn to really embrace and enjoy the spirit of this wonderful upcoming holiday celebration!

Merry Christmas Sweet Friends!

-Bren